Every time I leave or come back into State College my ears pop. It’s annoying and sometimes painful. And this got me to thinking why does this happen when your driving or in other situations like on an airplane?

Recently there has been deaths connected to a drug known as molly. It is a drug that is usually associated with techno music like Tiesto, Avicii, and EDM. When it first came on the scene it was “pure” but as it got more popular it has been altered and changed a lot. I saw a TV program talking about the dangers of molly and it made me want to look more into it because I know that it is a popular drug in college towns. 

Now that Halloween is right around the corner it got me to thinking about horror movies and scary things that go along with Halloween. I personally don’t like haunted houses or scary movies that much, but so many of my friends love that scary stuff and I was thinking why do they love scary things and why I don’t?

Over the weekend I was home and while I was out to dinner with my family I was the only one not legally allowed to have a glass of wine. I expressed to my mom, dad, and sister that it’s annoying that I can’t enjoy a drink with them because at school I drink very classy vlad and natty ice. My mom, who is very against underage drinking, said she doesn’t care. The law is the law. But my sister and my dad had a different take on it. They both believe, along with me, that the drinking age should be lowered because those who don’t learn their drinking limits before college can get into some serious danger. 

Before I came to college I was never really someone who got stressed out. My work load in high school wasn’t too bad and it seemed like there was enough time in the day to get done everything I needed to. But when I got to college it was a totally different story. I don’t think there’s a day that I don’t feel stressed or have anxiety about something. And if you’re like me you think why am I always stressed? What can be done to reduce or stop this stress?

It’s that time of the year everyone! The leaves are changing and the temperature is dropping. And with that comes college girls itching to keep that summer tan. Here in State College you see girls and you ask yourself “how are they still so tan?” The answer is simple. Tanning salons. The tanning salons here get very busy during these winter months because the girls just can’t stand being pale. Knowing this I wonder how bad is tanning for all these girls going multiple times a week.

If you’re like me you can’t sit in silence. I have to have music playing whenever I’m walking to class or siting in my room doing homework. I never really thought about it until I needed something to blog about, but how does music affect my mood? It strange to think that a series of notes and some lyrics can either make you extremely happy or extremely sad in three minutes. According to The Examiner when you listen to happy, upbeat music the chemical in your body,serotonin, is released to make you feel happy like the music you are listening to. 

When I was a little kid I never wanted to go to sleep at night, but now that’s all I want to do. I know I speak for many people when I say I wake up in the morning and can’t wait to get back in bed that night. As college students it’s important for us to get a good nights sleep whenever we can because studies at Harvard say it will boost your memory. It is known that “only 11% of students sleep well” while “40% only feel rested two days of the week”. The cause of this? Anywhere from schoolwork and studying to extracurricular activities and social life. But we need to be mindful in what we are exposing ourselves to before we hit the hay. From this Harvard study they have found that “the most critical period of sleep for memory consolidation is in the hours following a lesson.” The amount of sleep affects three learning processes that are important to your learning in school. The first, acquisition is how the brain receives and stores the information that you are putting in it. The second, consolidation is how the brain makes the memories/information stronger or weaker in your brain. And third, recall, which is how the brain uses the information that you stored. Without the proper amount of sleep these three steps aren’t used to the best of their abilities making it hard for students to remember things they have learned. I know it seems like you should be up all night study for exams, but from this study sleep is important for remembering the information that you need too! So don’t be afraid to sleep if you need to, it will definitely help you in the long run! 

  

It seems that marijuana is becoming a more common drug day by day. From kids in middle school to 50+ adults, it seems that marijuana is getting to everyone. But how bad is it? We are told by doctors, police, and parents that marijuana is very bad for you and you shouldn’t get involved with it. Is that the truth though? This Rolling Stones article touches on all the myths that are out there about weed. For example, marijuana doesn’t hurt your memory. In fact, it helps it. If you are a regular smoker it won’t have any effect on your memory loss. Also it amazes me that we are being told marijuana is bad for us when cancer patience are given medical marijuana to help them with chemotherapy. The Daily Beast explains that Christina Sanchez observed that the cancer cells die off when they come in contact with THC, which is the main ingredient in marijuana. To me that’s a big positive about marijuana. From reading these articles it doesn’t seem like marijuana is as bad as everyone makes it seem. Believe what you’d like, but it’s becoming more good than bad in my eyes. 

When one thinks of addiction alcohol and drugs come to mind. When I think of addiction now social media is up there with those two categories. You can’t go a minute without seeing someone’s head buried in their smartphone or computer. The cause: social media obviously. The phenomenon of social media is stronger than ever, I believe. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Vine are probably the most popular social media websites/apps now. I will even say that I have some addiction to these websites. I feel disconnected to my friends and the world if I don’t look at twitter. According to studies done by Harvard University, putting information online about yourself uses the same part of the brain that taps into pleasure. The type of pleasure from food (my favorite kind of pleasure) getting money, or even having sex. These experiments that were conducted showed that people are more engaged about about themselves than talking about other people. And isn’t that what social media is about? Sharing information to others about YOU. I don’t know about you, but it seems like we are all a bunch narcissists. I mean let’s even take my blog here for an example, I’m telling everyone how I feel about social media addiction. The words just seem to be flowing, because it’s what I think.